To Light a Thousand Lamps - The Theosophical Society

56 / TO LIGHT A THOUSAND LAMPS
the growth of its future body. More permanent than the
memory residing in our physical brain is that retained by
the inner aspects of our being. While memory may reside
in the life-atoms of the astral brain, the model of the physical
brain, it adheres more permanently in the memory cells
of character, in the reincarnating ego.
Ongoing research in prenatal and neonatal consciousness
suggests that the fetal consciousness even during the
first trimester records neural responses to what is pleasing to
it and what is not, and also reacts instantaneously to what it
hears as well as to the unspoken thoughts and feelings of
both parents. As a living entity, though not yet housed in a
body like ours, whatever the fetus experiences is registered
in the astral light as well as in its memory cells. The newborn
has no apparent recollection of this, but studies confirm
that the level of awareness of the returning ego is far
more acute than previously suspected.*
The mystery of memory is indeed profound, and we
know very little about its role during life and after death.
Even without regression, it is possible for an individual
when fully awake to ‘‘see’’ into the astral atmosphere of
earth, the astral light, and momentarily ‘‘relive’’ or ‘‘remember’’
persons or events that may or may not derive from his
own karmic past. As with regression, it is equally possible
for one to be ‘‘seeing’’ or ‘‘reading’’ in the astral light the
thoughts or life-experiences of someone else. When so little
firm knowledge is available in this field, it is well to be
prudent and not make hard-and-fast judgments. The pro-
*See Thomas Verny, M.D., with John Kelly, The Secret Life of the
Unborn Child.